BAR1 Loses Daytona Second Place on Drive-Time Violation

A second post-race penalty has been assessed following the 53rd Rolex 24 at Daytona, as on Tuesday, BAR1 Motorsports’ second-place has been deleted following a drive-time violation.

The Prototype Challenge class entry featured class polesitter Johnny Mowlem, Tom Papadopoulos, Tomy Drissi, Brian Alder and Martin Plowman in the No. 16 Oreca FLM09, but one of the car’s Silver-rated drivers did not meet the minimum drive time requirement of four hours and 30 minutes.

The pro-am PC class requires minimum drive times to be met by Bronze- or Silver-rated (amateur) drivers to be eligible for points and awards. For the Rolex 24, that minimum was as mentioned, four hours and 30 minutes for the PC and GT Daytona (GTD) class.

As the No. 16 team utilized two Platinum drivers in its Rolex 24 lineup, the team needed two Silver- or Bronze-rated drivers to each achieve the minimum drive time requirement. Only one of the team’s Silver- or Bronze drivers met the minimum. As a result, the No. 16 team loses its finishing position and all prize money and points, aside from the one point awarded for starting the race.

“For the competitive balance and fairness for other teams with different driver configurations in the ‘pro-am’ environment, minimum drive times for Bronze and Silver-rated drivers must be enforced,” said IMSA Race Director Beaux Barfield.

Per IMSA, how this situation differs from the Wayne Taylor Racing post-race penalty announced last week is that this was am failing to hit the minimum drive time, rather than a pro exceeding the maximum drive time. A rules clarification on the maximum drive time is expected to be made in the wake of the Taylor penalty.

The penalty assessed to the No. 16 team is consistent with a penalty assessed to the No. 94 Turner Motorsport GTD team in the 2014 Rolex 24 At Daytona, which also had one pro-am driver miss the minimum drive time requirement.

This change will promote CORE autosport to second and JDC-Miller Motorsports to third as a result.

Provisional results and points are expected to be released following this announcement, with official results to follow shortly thereafter.